In elementary school, my brothers and I brown bagged it for lunch. Many times it was peanut butter and jelly, but quite often it was bologna–not pre-sliced bologna you find in the packaged lunch meat section today, but the good stuff, bought by the hunk. (I actually don’t remember pre-sliced, pre-packaged bologna when I was a kid, maybe I just wasn’t observant.)

Every once in a while, Mom would make our brown bagging a little more exciting. Instead of peanut butter and jelly or thick sliced bologna, there was ground bologna between those homemade slices of bread. In that Ground Bologna was everything I loved in a bologna sandwich and more–ham and pickle were added in and sometimes some cheese. And because a spread is an even easier way to throw a sandwich together, kids love it!

As many of you know, I’m an ingredient reader. Sometimes I’ll even take a picture of those ingredients then go home and duplicate it. I decided to duplicate the Ham Spread at my local grocer’s deli counter. There was no duplicating needed! What is now known as Ham Spread is my Ground Bologna. Maybe they don’t want you to know there is bologna in it. And my mind thinks there is more, but I’m not going to go there. I love my version! And oh, so much cheaper than that Ham Spread found in the deli section.

With a meat grinder, grind equal amounts of ham and bologna. I make it in 2 pound recipes (1 pound of each).

You can use relish (dill or sweet, your preference), but since I can my own dill pickles, I just grind up a couple pickles after I’ve put the meats through. I use 1/2 cup relish per pound of meat, so I’m using 1 cup of ground pickle here. If you’d like cheese in yours, add 1/2 cup per pound of meat.

Mix everything together.

Now add in mayonnaise, 1/2 cup per pound of meat (I’m using 1 cup).

Mix it all together and you’ve got Ground Bologna. Or Ham Spread as they call it now.

Not only is it good in a sandwich, it’s a great spread with crackers.

That’s why I make it in 2 pound recipes–a ground bologna sandwich for lunch and crackers with dip for supper. It’s all good!

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Comments

Oh, we love Ground Bologna at our house too. We just use bologna in ours, but only the good stuff because the result is only as good as what you put into it. We add mustard and a bit of finely minced onion. Mom always used her hand grinder that hooked onto the table. I use the grinder on my mixer. You can use the food processor but it will have a slightly different texture. Be super careful not to over-process as it will turn to mush. This is especially good on Rye Bread; Dilly Rye is even better.

I had to read this post because I thought someone had hacked into my computer for my moms recipe for ham salad. I know, highly unlikely but it looks IDENTICAL! However the method and ingredients to some degree are different. I am not saying this is healthy, but bologna,is that really healthy?
The way mom made our ham salad was to grate either a canned ham or a can of spam into a bowl, to which you could add horseradish, chopped celery, chopped onion, relish and mayonaise. We would have this on sandwiches, crackers,or celery sticks as a snack, lunch or make a meal of it.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane; this takes me back to seventh grade when my mom had the “recipe” given to her. Most lunches were the ham spread. I have made it a few times over the years but not recently; guess a trip to the market is called for. In addition to some onion she also added hard cooked egg. Yummm.

Cindy, I make this with all of your ingredients and mustard, salt and pepper and zucchini relish that is homemade as I can lots of it each year. However, I use peppered ham and no bologna since we grow our own pigs and only have pepper ham.

I also add onions and sometimes if I make extra we put a canned vegetable in it also. Works great for a dinner salad with crackers and lettuce on bottom. sometimes we put pasta into it for something extra if we are making salads.

I remember ground bologna – my Granny used a table-mount grinder like jerseylady! She also made a spread from ground frankfurters (back when you could buy them from the butcher) and yes they are AWESOME on rye bread – oh my gosh I’m drooling now!

This is super cool – it’s ALMOST the “depression spread” a wonderful lady with whom I attended nursing school always brought to our pot-luck events. Her’s had peanuts in it – and it was soooo wonderful that I may have to try it your way and then try to re-create her’s. I just wish I could remember it better – it’s been a long time since Florence Nightengale and I were in nursing school together LOL…Anyone ever heard of a version of this spread with peanuts in it?

My mom made ours with just ham…although bologna sandwiches were a popular lunch item as well. Love the idea of eating it on celery! Hadn’t thought of that. Hmm~~~~I have the grinder that mounts on the table and the one on my kitchen aide. Which to use? Decisions, decisions. 🙂

yeah! This is the stuff we used to call “sandwich spread”. We used to be able to buy it in 1 lb tubs and it was always so delicious, and a rare treat. I’m going to try this recipe (and try to score some real bologna to do it with!) Thanks for the recipe!

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